Our View: Orly Jimenez for SVMH board

With the tumultuous recent history of the board of directors of Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, the race between Orly Jimenez and Rafael Garcia for the District 3 seat is important to providing stability to a critical health-care system in the Salinas Valley. We see the key to that stability in Orly Jimenez.

Our concern harks back to the three majority members of the board who were involved in allowing an extravagant golden parachute to former chief executive Sam Downing while approving layoffs of rank and file workers. Unfortunately, none of their seats are yet up for election under the new districting ballot.

Equally as unfortunate was the inability to get Garcia into The Californian office for an interview, despite several attempts. What we know about Garcia is that he is bankrolled by a hospital physician political action committee - to the tune of $25,000 during August, September and October, according to elections office filings - a sizeable sum for a small hospital district campaign.

The last thing the hospital needs is more inside baseball. Whether true or not, there is a perception that the current board enjoyed making decisions outside of the public limelight. Fresh board members can change that that dynamic, but not if they are beholden to one power group or another. Board members need to take their marching orders from their constituents, not those vying for power.

Jimenez on the other hand, emphasized to us that in the search for a permanent chief executive, the process should be "fair, open and with the participation of the community."

An insurance broker by trade, Jimenez has the budgetary acumen to ask the right questions of hospital staff when they are proposing annual budgets. And, he said he will champion an open budgeting process so that "every dollar will be known to the public."

Who knows? He might end up running into a brick wall with the three majority members of the board, just as past board members did. But if he can at least fight to keep the process transparent, then half the battle is already won.

We urge you to vote for Orly Jimenez.

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Our View: Orly Jimenez for SVMH board

With the tumultuous recent history of the board of directors of Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, the race between Orly Jimenez and Rafael Garcia for the District 3 seat is important to providing